鬼灯

Japanese

鬼灯 (hōzuki): the Chinese lantern plant, showing the fruit in its distinctive husk.

Kanji in this term
鬼	灯
Grade: S	Grade: 4
irregular

Alternative spelling
鬼燈 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

Probably originally a compound of 頬 (hō, “cheeks”) +‎ 付き (tsuki, “resembling, appearing like”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 付く tsuku “to stick → to become a certain state or quality”), from the way the husk vaguely resembles bulging red cheeks. The tsuki changes to zuki as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

The 鬼灯 kanji spelling is an example of jukujikun, literally meaning “demon's lantern”. The 酸漿 kanji spelling is from the Chinese term.

Alternative forms

• 酸漿

Noun

鬼灯(ほおずき) or 鬼灯(ホオズキ) • (hōzuki) ^{←ほおづき (fooduki)?}

1. Physalis alkekengi

   Vernacular names include the Chinese lantern, Japanese lantern, bladder cherry, winter cherry, husk tomato, and the strawberry groundcherry.

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ホオズキ.

References

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN